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ll Darrin Kelly wanted for the energy workers in Western Pennsylvania was that the Democratic presidential hopefuls
families and communities that had been hollowed out by the demise of manufacturing and coal in this area.” Donald Trump won Pennsylvania with just over 40,000 votes in 2016. Kelly doesn’t think he is entitled to the presidential candidates’ time. He just knows what happens when the energy labor force in Western Pennsylvania isn’t behind the Democratic nominee. “You cannot win the presidency if you are a Democrat without Pennsylvania,” Brauer reminds bluntly. Democrats have won Pennsylvania in past presidential years because of outsized margins in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and their suburbs. That support has been declining since Bill Clinton won 28 of the state’s 67 counties in 1996. Barack Obama won 13 of the 67 counties in 2012. Trump’s magic came in rural and post- industrial counties such as Luzerne and Erie, but most importantly in the populous counties around Pittsburgh, where shale is king and fracking is seen as the second coming of the steel industry.
would talk to them before going to war against shale. That opportunity slipped away this fall when Elizabeth Warren joined Bernie Sanders in calling for a total fracking ban. “On my first day as president, I will sign an executive order that puts a total moratorium on all new fossil fuel leases for drilling offshore and on public lands. And I will ban fracking -- everywhere,” Warren tweeted. “It is disappointing that any national candidate would not come in here and want to talk to the men and women of this area first before unilaterally making that decision,” said Kelly, a charismatic Pittsburgh firefighter who is also the head of the powerful and influential Allegheny Fayette Labor Council, which represents workers stretching from Pittsburgh to the borders of Maryland and West Virginia. The rest of the Democratic hopefuls will follow suit, with the possible exception of Joe Biden. At least, that’s the prediction of Keystone College political science professor Jeff Brauer. “The natural gas industry employs well over 40,000 people just in this region alone,” Kelly said. “Countless more indirectly, providing economic opportunity for generations of
“You cannot win the presidency if you are a Democrat without Pennsylvania,”
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